Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
The Boys in the Boat (George Clooney)
This is, from start to finish, an underdog sports picture. Edgerton puts a welcome spin on the gruff-but-caring coach archetype, and Turner does the same with his lead character. Soft-spoken, stern, and handsome, this is a role someone like Ronald Reagan would have excelled at bringing to the screen some 80 years ago; Turner, luckily, is more interesting to look at and a better actor. Alexandre Desplat’s score is maybe the most playful thing about this film, and it works when it needs to. The race sequences are unquestionably Boys‘ highlight, Clooney making use of zoom lenses and well-placed cameras to capture the speed and fluidity of each competition. There is a real tension mined in these scenes, which feels like something the director has not really achieved before. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)
In The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Ann, a lugubrious New Yorker, sleepwalks through her daily life––colorless job, perennially disappointed parents––while maintaining a long-term sub/dom relationship with an older man. She visits her Jewish family, goes to yoga, and attempts some Internet dating. Invariably she winds up in her boyfriend’s lifeless brownstone. Executive-produced by Sean Baker, this is the feature debut of writer-director Joanna Arnow, a Brooklyn-based actor and filmmaker who made a name for herself as a wry observer of millennial sex lives and stasis with a couple of award-winning shorts: Bad at Dancing (2015) and Laying Out (2019). In Dancing, Arnow sat naked on the floor, casually asking for advice from a friend having sex right in front of her. The sense that everyone around you is getting their shit together (and maybe getting laid) is present again here; yet eight years hence, it arrives with the added humility of lived experience. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Gasoline Rainbow (Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross)
Watch an exclusive clip above.
“The only difference between children and grown-ups is that the grown-ups are unsupervised.” This line, uttered in the second half of Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross’s seventh feature Gasoline Rainbow, is not particularly framed as words of wisdom. The award-winning filmmakers have explored American life through places, people, and their interconnectedness since the late 2000s in a way that’s far from linear. A multitude of voices, characters (or simply people) populate the screen, their practice exploratory before it aims at any definitive answers. The why and the why-not are irrelevant questions, yet every new offering feels as profound as life itself. Gasoline Rainbow, a premiere in this year’s Venice Orizzonti sidebar, benefits from their trademark hybrid filmmaking, placing nonprofessional teenage actors on a thrilling 513-mile journey from Wiley, Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean. – Savina P. (full review)
Where to Stream: MUBI (free for 30 days)
MoviePass, MovieCrash (Muta’Ali)
It is possible that one day an excellent narrative feature in the vein of The Big Short, BlackBerry, Dumb Money or Margin Call will be made about MoviePass, a company built––and destroyed––by several larger-than-life figures. For now, we have Muta’Ali’s documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash, which provides a broad overview of the deal everyone knew was too good to be true: a company that, for about a year, was so obsessed with subscriber growth that they offered customers the chance to see one movie per day for only $9.95 month. – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: Max
Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (François Truffaut)
One of Truffaut’s greatest films also stands among his least-seen, likely for no good reason outside decades-long issues with distribution. (Not that this is much good reason, either.) His fascinations with nestled narratives and amorous array––particularly how these are so often conducive to murder plots––found few better conduits than Bernadette Lafont, and the picture in total is motivated by one simple, reasonable factor: Truffaut found her extremely attractive. Will be punctuated neatly by ad breaks for Lysol and the new Nissan model.
Where to Stream: TUBI
Tokyo Days (Chris Marker)
To celebrate the release of The Film Desk Books’ new English language edition of Chris Marker’s photo-essay about Japan, Le Dépays, we’re pleased to present a rare screening of his unconventional take on the travelog film, which stars Arielle Dombasle and collects several of his recurring fascinations with Tokyo––cats, owls, samurai movies, and snoozing subway passengers––into a ruminative tour through the city’s streets and shops.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Also New to Streaming
Disney+
Jim Henson: Idea Man
Hulu
The First Omen
Sympathy for the Devil
Kino Film Collection
Fear and Desire – Uncut
Prime Video
The Spanish Prisoner
VOD
Poolman